Bad announcements come in threes and comics are no exception this month so far. Two more amazing cartoonists joined Carmine Infantino: Bob Clarke and George Gladir. (Oddly, both were about the same age as Carmine–87. So thankfully they had long, productive lives and careers. We can at least take comfort in that.)

Bob Clarke was a staple of MAD magazine as one of the “Usual Gang Of Idiots” that graced its pages from the 1950s thru the ‘80s. His classic cartoon style was a perfect contrast to the subversive scripts he illustrated, making his features as funny as anyone else’s. I read that Bob was also the first ghost artist on the ubiquitous “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” feature after Robert Ripley decided to spend more time gathering stories than drawing. This explains why Bob’s numerous MAD parodies, “Believe It Or Nuts!” looked so authentic! The closer to the original, the funnier and more effective the parody.

(I have one paperback of reprinted Ripley’s strips but no idea if they’re Clarke’s. I tried using a Google image search but couldn’t find any specific examples of his “legit” Ripley’s work; if you do, please post a link in the comments section below.)

I wish I had met him and had him sign my MAD when a bunch of the gang was in San Diego for EC’s 50th anniversary, but never got the chance. Glad to see a lot of fan photos of him; seems he was at least appreciated later. But he was definitely underrated during his MAD tenure.

George Gladir is known primarily as co-creator of Sabrina The Teenage Witch (with my favorite Archie artist, Dan DeCarlo) and writer for Archie Comics and CRACKED magazine. Thought starting in 1959, his first “known” Archie work was the gag “Sign Language” in ARCHIE’S GIRLS BETTY AND VERONICA #59 (Nov. 1960). He wrote many gags and stories, including funny stuff for ARCHIE’S MADHOUSE and their MAD knock-off, TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS. I’m sure I’ve enjoyed many of his tales and laughed at his gags and didn’t even know they were his!

In recent years, George won the Bill Finger Award at Comic-Con for his wonderful career.